The cool beauty forcibly bids for top A: Chapter 64

“Can you say that again?” he asked with a smile, his voice sounding hoarse.

Shen Yanzhou slightly crossed his arms. “Your hearing is fine; you don’t need me to repeat it a second time.“

“But I’m curious about one thing.“

“If I hadn’t opened this door just now, if I would rather watch Shen Corporation’s stock hit the limit down than ever agree to marry you… what were you planning to do?“

Shen Yanzhou stood inside the doorway, his cool, silver-gray eyes scrutinizing the man standing on the steps. “Were you going to use the survival of the Shen family to threaten me?“

“I actually thought about it.” Fu Sizhou gazed at Shen Yanzhou, the murky darkness rolling in the depths of his eyes resembling a bottomless swamp.

“During the four days I locked you up, that crazed thought flashed through my mind countless times. I wanted to watch with cold eyes as the Shen family went bankrupt, watch those old fogies drive you into a dead end, and then I would appear in the posture of a savior…” His voice grew lower and lower, carrying a nearly cruel, morbid edge. “…buying you and locking you away in a place where only I can see you, making you dependent on me for the rest of your life.“

Shen Yanzhou looked at him, his spine instantly tensing into a defensive posture like he was ready to strike back at any moment.

“However…” Fu Sizhou suddenly lowered his gaze, letting out a low, hoarse, bitter chuckle mixed with self-loathing. He walked up the steps and stopped dead half a step away from Shen Yanzhou, as if moving any closer would shatter the person in front of him.

“How could I dare?“

He looked deeply at Shen Yanzhou’s cold and proud brows and eyes, tracing them inch by inch. “I know how much effort you poured into acquiring controlling stake of the Shen family, and how many all-nighters you pulled. If I completely broke your bones just to satisfy my own unspeakable selfish desires, turning you into a little bird that can only cling to me…” Fu Sizhou took a deep breath, and all the madness in his eyes turned into compromise. “…then you wouldn’t be you. I can’t bear to do that.“

Shen Yanzhou’s eyelashes trembled slightly. “Then you…“

“But if you don’t agree to marry me…“

Fu Sizhou lowered his voice, his gaze resting on the collarbone slightly exposed beneath Shen Yanzhou’s pajamas. “…if you don’t agree, I probably would have disabled all of the Shen family’s security, broken into your bedroom in the middle of the night, and held you tightly on the bed.“

The corners of Fu Sizhou’s eyes flushed red. “Even if you pointed a gun at me and cursed me with the ugliest words. Even if you hate me, you can only belong to me alone.“

He really is a madman.

Shen Yanzhou turned around and issued a command without looking back. “Come in. We’ll talk in my room.“

The wall lamp in the living room cast a warm, dim light.

“Meow…” Miss Calico cat crawled out from a corner, walking with an elegant cat trot, affectionately rubbing against the edge of Shen Yanzhou’s slippers, and then followed closely behind the two of them upstairs, swishing her fluffy tail.

Fu Sizhou stopped in his tracks, lowered his gaze to look at the little ball of fluff by his feet, and asked, “What is this cat’s name?“

Shen Yanzhou glanced at the little fellow spinning around his feet and answered indifferently, “Milk Tea.“

Fu Sizhou raised his eyes and asked, “Do you like it?“

Shen Yanzhou’s thoughts were pulled back to his birthday last year.

That night, after getting off work, he dragged his exhausted body back to the mountainside villa, only to find a cardboard box lined with a soft cushion at the door. Inside the box was this meowing calico kitten.

Around the kitten’s neck hung a crude card, on which four words were written crookedly in an outrageously ugly dog-scratch handwriting: Happy Birthday.

There was no signature.

But Shen Yanzhou took one look at that note and knew who had sent it.

“Mn, I like it,” Shen Yanzhou replied honestly.

Hearing this answer, the amusement in Fu Sizhou’s eyes melted into tenderness.

Shen Yanzhou went up to the second floor and pushed open the door to his master bedroom. “Come in and have a seat.“

Once seated at the desk, his demeanor changed completely. He took out pen and paper, put on silver-rimmed glasses, and tied his long silver hair low behind his head with a deep blue ribbon. He didn’t look like he was discussing a marriage; he looked like he was negotiating a business deal.

He picked up his phone, turned on the recording function, and pushed the phone to the center of the desk.

“Since we are getting married, we must set some rules in advance. Everything we say from now on will be recorded. If there are no issues, I will have the legal department draft a contract tomorrow.“

Fu Sizhou sat down beside him, glanced at the recording interface on the desk, and far from being angry, the amusement in his eyes only grew denser. The scene felt as if it had returned to half a year ago.

“Rule number one,” Shen Yanzhou raised his chin slightly, speaking in a strictly businesslike tone. “I need the Fu Corporation to inject one billion into the Shen Corporation.“

“One billion?” Fu Sizhou said.

Shen Yanzhou nodded and coldly retorted, “What? Is that a problem?“

“It’s not that it’s a problem. I thought you would ask for more.“

Seeing Shen Yanzhou twirling the pen in his hand, Fu Sizhou imitated him and started twirling his own.

“Since that’s the case, I need three billion injected into the Shen Corporation’s main board to prop it up. In exchange, the core overseas shipping routes under the Shen family’s name can be unconditionally opened to the Fu Corporation.“

“I have no interest in those pieces of junk.“

Far from pulling back, Fu Sizhou leaned forward instead, pressing his hands against the back of Shen Yanzhou’s chair and the edge of the desk, completely trapping him within his shadow. Mint-scented pheromones uncontrollably overflowed from his body, tangling vaguely around the back of Shen Yanzhou’s neck.

Shen Yanzhou was forced to raise his head, his lower back inexplicably weakening from being stimulated by that familiar scent, but on the surface, he still maintained his icy defense from the negotiating table. “Then what do you want?“

“Call me hubby and let me hear it.“

The air in the study was sucked dry.

Shen Yanzhou’s hand holding the steel pen tightened gradually, his silver-gray eyes widening slightly. The chaotic memories of those four days during his heat rushed into his mind like a tidal wave. Amidst countless instances of stimulation that brought him to the brink of collapse, he had been forced to cry out and call the person in front of him hubby… But now, with a clear mind, how could he possibly bring himself to say it?

“Is it that hard?” Fu Sizhou’s gaze landed with tangible weight on his tightly pursed lips. “Then…“

Forget it then, we’ll talk about it later.

“Lou… gung (Hubby).“

Shen Yanzhou extremely quickly lowered his thick, long eyelashes to dodge that scorching gaze. He parted his lips ever so slightly, his voice as small as a cat scratching, yet carrying an extreme contrast of heavy, shameful Cantonese pronunciation. The pale-white tips of his ears flushed into a brilliant, vivid red at a speed visible to the naked eye.

With a click, the signature pen in Fu Sizhou’s hand rolled down onto the carpet.

You really know how to be the death of me.

Shen Yanzhou watched him in silence with a cold face, forcibly pulling the atmosphere back to the negotiating table. “Next rule: I agree to marry you, but it must be a secret marriage.”

The amusement in Fu Sizhou’s eyes receded. “Do you feel that… marrying me is humiliating?”

Shen Yanzhou looked at him. “I just parted ways with your older brother. He was arrested at my engagement banquet. If news immediately gets out that I’m marrying you, outsiders will definitely think that the two of us were already hooked up long ago. They might even think that Fu Shihan’s downfall was a setup we orchestrated together so we could be openly together.”

“That spiel of yours from before, about attentive care and a brother-in-law developing feelings over time… that kind of nonsensical talk can only fool audiences in high-society dog-blood short dramas. In reality, that simply won’t work. Don’t take the Hong Kong media for fools.”

At this point, Shen Yanzhou raised his chin slightly, meeting Fu Sizhou’s murky, unreadable eyes head-on. “If you can’t accept a secret marriage, then let’s not get married at all.”

“I agree,” Fu Sizhou replied quickly.

Seeing this, Shen Yanzhou nodded. “Then next, let’s talk about the prenuptial agreement.”

“First of all, financial independence. After marriage, the shares, trusts, and real estate under both parties’ names will not interfere with each other. The decision-making power of the Shen Corporation stays with me, and the Fu family’s mess belongs to you. There will be no deep binding of core interests. Any problem with that?”

“No problem, it’s all yours,” Fu Sizhou answered extremely quickly. He had never had any interest in those cold numbers and shares.

“All of it… is mine?” Shen Yanzhou asked back. “If we get divorced in the future, then you’ll be walking away with nothing.”

“So, will you divorce me?” Fu Sizhou asked carefully.

Shen Yanzhou glanced at him and said indifferently, “It depends on your performance.”

“Second, regarding living arrangements.” Shen Yanzhou tapped the paper with the tip of his pen. “I can live with you; you can move in here with me. There is a guest room with great lighting at the end of the second-floor hallway, and it’s yours.”

However, Fu Sizhou shook his head slightly.

“Live at my place first.”

“Why?” Shen Yanzhou frowned slightly. “My study and documents are all here. Moving back and forth is a hassle, and I’m not used to living at your place.”

Fu Sizhou’s voice was very soft. “Every inch of air in this house of yours is wound too tight. Your sleeping pills are hidden in the second compartment of the left drawer, and you’re still looking at financial reports at two in the morning. You need an environment where you can completely relax.”

Shen Yanzhou raised his eyes, a ripple of tingles crawling up his spine. “You even investigated these things?”

“No need to investigate, because I’ve always been watching you. Having spent so much time with you, I know all your habits.”

“My villa just had the best constant-temperature system installed, and the mattress was changed to the softest one. If you move over, I’ll take care of your daily life along with the cat and dog. I know how to do laundry, cook, and make double-boiled soups. As for your work documents, you can cross the street to handle them over here anytime. How about it?”

That final “How about it?” made the fingers holding his steel pen freeze for a moment.

He had expected Fu Sizhou to use some overbearing reason to force him, but he hadn’t expected the reason the other man gave to be… to make him sleep more comfortably?

“Whatever you want, living on either side is fine,” Shen Yanzhou calmly averted his gaze and stiffly cut into the next topic.

“Part three.”

Shen Yanzhou took a deep breath, his spine straightening even further.

“Regarding… post-marital sex life.”

Even though he tried his hardest to maintain the cold ruthlessness of a business negotiation, the tips of his ears still uncontrollably flushed red when these three words escaped his lips, and even his eyelashes trembled slightly.

“As partners, assisting each other with physiological relief and pheromone soothing during each other’s rut and heat periods is part of the contract. I have no objection to that.”

Shen Yanzhou picked up the cold tea on the desk and took a sip to moisten his slightly dry throat. “However, setting aside the special periods controlled by hormones, everyday sex life must have strict regulations. I cannot accommodate your high energy levels anytime and anywhere.”

At this point, Shen Yanzhou threw out a probing question. “Fu Sizhou, are you addicted?”

Fu Sizhou gazed at Shen Yanzhou with bottomless black eyes and countered instead, “What about you?”

Shen Yanzhou bit his lip. In the past, he used to be completely sexless, but now he was an S-grade Omega, and S-grade Omegas inherently had an addiction to an Alpha’s pheromones. Uncontrollably, the images of the two of them entangling to the death during those four days flashed through his mind.

Mint-scented pheromones flooded him like a tsunami that soul-shaking satisfaction that high-concentration inhibitors could never bring…

Although he didn’t like this man, his body had shamefully memorized this man’s rhythm and temperature.

Shen Yanzhou shook his head expressionlessly, his voice calm. “I don’t. I’ve always been indifferent to this kind of thing.”

Fu Sizhou looked at him with utmost frankness, naturally taking over the conversation.

“Mn, you don’t, but I do.”

“I am addicted to you, and the addiction is very strong. Therefore, regarding everyday sex life, I cannot manage to be pure-hearted and desireless.”

Shen Yanzhou continued to bite his lip, coldly throwing out a condition. “Since it’s an agreement, it must be quantified. Everyday sex life: once a week. No more than that.”

“Can’t we just do it when we want to?”

Shen Yanzhou shook his head. “No. I have endless meetings to attend every day and hundreds of pages of documents to read. I don’t have that kind of energy to go crazy with you every day.”

“Then I won’t touch you on workdays, but weekend time is fine, right?”

Shen Yanzhou quickly calculated in his mind. Weekends were barely acceptable; at least it could guarantee he would be a normal person when going to work on Monday.

“Then let’s talk about contraception next.” Shen Yanzhou raised his eyes, his expression extremely serious. “Whether it’s everyday life or the heat period, you must wear a condom. We are only in a contractual marriage, and I don’t want any uncontrollable accidental pregnancy to happen. That would completely disrupt my rhythm.”

“I won’t wear one.”

“Why?” Shen Yanzhou’s brows locked tightly.

“I’m allergic to condoms.” Fu Sizhou’s face was written with absolute sincerity.

Shen Yanzhou sneered. “Who are you trying to fool? There are natural latex, polyurethane, and water-based hypoallergenic materials on the market dozens of materials. Are you telling me you’re allergic to all of them?”

“Yes, allergic to all of them.”

Fu Sizhou replied righteously. “Anything that comes between us and blocks me from touching you will trigger an allergy. You wouldn’t want me to go into anaphylactic shock in bed, would you?”

How could he possibly allow those cheap industrial products to isolate their temperatures? What he wanted was the unreserved blending of pheromones, for Shen Yanzhou to belong to him alone from the inside out.

Shen Yanzhou knew that reasoning with him was a lost cause.

Since the first line of defense couldn’t be held, he would hold the very last line to the death.

“Fine, you don’t have to wear one.” Shen Yanzhou coldly delivered his final ultimatum, shooting a gaze like a knife with a warning undertone. “Then you are absolutely, strictly not allowed to finish inside.”

“Are you sure?” Fu Sizhou asked back.

“What do you mean?” Shen Yanzhou asked, uncomprehending.

Fu Sizhou’s gaze traced his lips with tangible weight, spitting out a sentence very slowly and lightly. “Or did President Shen forget?”

“Forge… forget what?” Shen Yanzhou forced a calm front, but the fingers holding the pen had already begun to tighten slightly.

“Forgot how you acted during those four days?” Fu Sizhou added.

The dead memories came back to life.

“Hubby… hold me tighter, in… side.”

“Give me all your pheromones.”

“…”

At the mere thought of those four days, when he had lost his reason and clung to this man, his originally pale and aloof cheeks flushed bright red at a speed visible to the naked eye. A intense blush burned all the way from the tips of his ears into the slightly opened collar of his shirt, throwing even his breathing out of rhythm.

It was simply too humiliating.

“That was the heat period! That was caused by Omega pheromone loss of control, an instinctive reliance. It wasn’t my rationality… it doesn’t mean I’ll be like that normally.”

The more Shen Yanzhou explained, the more flustered he became.

Fu Sizhou didn’t continue pressing step-by-step; instead, he leaned back. “I promise you.”

“There’s one more thing you must absolutely promise me.” Shen Yanzhou’s voice tightened slightly. “It’s about… a complete marking.”

“Fu Sizhou, whether it’s everyday life or the heat period, even if I lose my mind and beg you, you are absolutely, 100 percent not allowed to touch that place. If you dare to forcibly break it open and knot, this agreement is instantly voided, and I might just kill you.”

Once knotted and completely marked, it meant total submission from a physiological to a psychological level. He could sell out his marriage, and he could even sell out his body for the sake of his career, but he would never surrender his ultimate bottom line.

Fu Sizhou completely reined in his smile and ruffled Shen Yanzhou’s hair.

“I know. That place of yours is more special than others very tight. If I mark you by force, it’s easy to tear, it will bleed, and it might even endanger your life.”

“You… how do you know that?” Shen Yanzhou asked, surprised.

Because you were the one who told me.

Fu Sizhou looked at him and fabricated an excuse. “A feeling.”

“How could anyone get a feeling about something like that?”

Fu Sizhou lowered his head slightly. “When I could feel that place, your body was panicking and afraid, so I guessed it must be like that.”

Shen Yanzhou looked at him, a flicker of complex darkness flashing in his silver-gray eyes.

“That means even if you marry me, I will never let you completely mark me.” Shen Yanzhou stated this fact with extreme rationality. “In other words, there won’t be any children between us.”

“Even so, do you still want to marry me? Seen this way, this prenuptial agreement holds basically no benefit for you at all.”

Fu Sizhou looked at Shen Yanzhou’s overly sober face and suddenly smiled, though that smile didn’t quite reach the depths of his eyes.

“Mn, if there aren’t any, there aren’t any.”

Shen Yanzhou watched him for a moment and continued, “Last point.”

“The person who proposed marriage is you, but the initiative must remain in my hands.”

“When I say it ends, this marriage must end immediately. Do you agree?”

The smile at the corners of Fu Sizhou’s lips faded bit by bit. He stared fixedly at Shen Yanzhou, emotions churning in his deep eyes as his voice turned slightly hoarse. “Then… when will you stop?”

Shen Yanzhou lowered his eyelashes, his tone calm.

“Probably when I can’t bring myself to like you no matter what, or the day you don’t want to stay together with me anymore.”

No matter what, he could never bring himself to like him…

Fu Sizhou felt a piercing, intense bitterness welling up in his chest. In Shen Yanzhou’s eyes, this marriage was nothing more than a transaction that could be called off at any moment; it seemed he was planning to keep an escape route ready at all times.

Looking at the silent man, Shen Yanzhou confirmed with him once more.

“Fu Sizhou, think carefully. Marrying me means you immediately have to fork out three billion to plug the Shen Corporation’s hole. A single misstep, and even the Fu family you just got your hands on will be dragged down. Not only that, you have to accept a secret marriage, accept those harsh conditions, and in the end, we won’t even have a child between us.”

“Even with all that, do you still want to marry me?”

Fu Sizhou gazed into that pair of beautiful silver-gray eyes that reflected his own disheveled figure.

After a long while, he pushed down the churning bitterness in his heart and put his smile back on.

“Mn, I agree.”

Hearing those words, the heart Shen Yanzhou had hanging high in midair finally landed back in place. He extended his pale, slender fingers and pressed the stop button on the phone’s recording app.

Right at that moment, Fu Sizhou’s voice sounded again, impatient. “Then when can we go register our marriage?”

Shen Yanzhou raised his eyes to look at him, his tone remaining strictly businesslike. “Tomorrow. I’ll have the legal department draft the agreement at top speed. Once we sign, we can go register. I’ll have someone simultaneously arrange the press conference for the Fu Corporation’s capital injection in the afternoon.”

Fu Sizhou didn’t reply right away.

He sat quietly beside him, his deep gaze tracing Shen Yanzhou’s profile unblinkingly. The long silver hair tied back with the deep blue ribbon and the silver-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose added an extra layer of aloofness to him.

He suddenly raised his hand, reaching toward Shen Yanzhou’s face, took the silver-rimmed glasses off the bridge of his nose, and casually set them aside on the desk.

With the glasses removed, Shen Yanzhou’s beautiful silver-gray eyes, shimmering with fine, scattered light, were completely exposed to Fu Sizhou’s sight.

Fu Sizhou slowly leaned in and pressed an extremely gentle kiss onto Shen Yanzhou’s slightly cool cheek.

Afterward, he extended those strong, powerful arms and pulled him into his broad, scorching embrace.

“Wife.”

Fu Sizhou buried his face in the side of Shen Yanzhou’s neck, which was emanating a faint fragrance, and murmured in a voice that was hoarse to the extreme. “Thank you.”

Even if you don’t like me yet, even if this is just a transaction that could be called off at any moment, even if you are only doing it for the three billion injection, thank you nonetheless.

Shen Yanzhou’s body stiffened.

Wife? Wife? Wife?

That low, hoarse “wife” made his lower back tingle fiercely. Yet Shen Yanzhou still gritted his teeth, placing his hand which had been hanging in midair against Fu Sizhou’s hard chest, pulling back a slight distance with a cold face.

Fu Sizhou slowly raised his head, a languid and extremely dangerous smile surfacing on his handsome face. Staring with burning intensity at Shen Yanzhou’s slightly parted, glossy lips, he asked in a tone that sounded like consultation but left zero room for retreat:

“Since tomorrow’s for registering… can we sleep together tonight in advance?”